TITANIC MASTERPIECES / Orchestra of the Music Makers et al / Review

TITANIC MASTERPIECES

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (14 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 December 2016 with the title "Bravo for a stunning show"

The Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) is one group that does not operate in half-measures. Its concerts, like a Mahlerian symphony, aim to encompass the world,. Its latest concert, a collaboration with the Western Australian Youth Orchestra (WAYO), was a sequel to their last concert together in 2009 entitled When Heavens Collide.

It was more a case of “when bodies collide” when over 180 instrumentalists ascended the stage of Esplanade Concert Hall for two popular symphonies. The first was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in Gustav Mahler's orchestration which featured the OMM-School of the Arts Camp Orchestra with the Australians, conducted by Peter Moore.

Refreshing was to hear an old-fashioned big sound in a Beethoven symphony when the new normal was a lithe, Twiggy-like sonority favoured by many orchestras today. Opulence is a sin for some, but not so in Moore's expansive approach which could never be called sluggish. The entries were mostly very precise, amazing for so many young musicians huddled closely together.

The violas and cellos in the opening of the slow movement were svelte and mellow, so homogeneous that one imagined them to be seasoned professionals. Even if the 3^rd movement's goose-stepping was not always perfectly in sync, the sweep in the propulsive finale hugely impressed. Here, Mahler's favour boosting woodwinds and brass made their parts stride to the forefront. Even the humblest piccolo began to sound like a solo instrument.

       

Not wanting to neglect the concertante element, Quebecois violinist Alexandre Da Costa took centrestage in Sarasate's Gypsy Airs, accompanied by WAYO. His was another old-fashioned wallow with a vibrato that stretched the Nullabor Plain, and the virtuosic tricks to match. His encore, accompanied by just a string quartet was a stanza from the Canadian national anthem, O Canada.

The main event was the second half OMM-WAYO pairing in Mahler's First Symphony, also known as The Titan, conducted by Chan Tze Law. The opening had shaky moments for woodwinds and offstage trumpets despite the rapt pianissimo from the strings, but the dawn was evocatively captured. The strolling main theme, quoting one of Mahler's own Wayfarer Songs, stole the scene and the early awkwardness was soon forgotten.

Even better was the rollicking country dance of the 2^nd movement, where contrasts between the earthy and the spiritual were well delineated. The next movement's droll funeral march with the Frere Jacque theme was lit up with some lusty Klezmer-like playing that truly brought out the spirit of Mahler's sound world.

The finale's “cry of the wounded heart” was delivered with a directness and vehemence that was simply stunning. If one thought this mega-orchestra was all about dash and flash, the quiet and slow bits between showed the young musicians were also capable of nuance and sensitivity. 

Where did the conductor go?

As if to also demonstrate its total independence, conductor Chan stepped off the podium, and the players performed its encore, Franz Waxman's Ride Of The Cossacks from the movie Taras Bulba, on their own. Bravo indeed! 

Here they are! Partners in crime:
Peter Moore & ChanTze Law

Here's how to fit almost
200 people on stage.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN YOUTH ORCHESTRA IN CONCERT / Review

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN 

YOUTH ORCHESTRA IN CONCERT

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (11 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 December 2016 with the title "Amazing Australian youth orchestra".

The Western Australian Youth Orchestra was last heard here in 2009, when it performed a concert alongside The Orchestra of the Music Makers at Esplanade Concert Hall. This year, it had the stage to its own with an excellent concert led by its Music Director Peter Moore, who is often better remembered as irrepressible host of the wildly popular Babies Proms.

Contemporary Australian music featured prominently on its programme, with two works lasting about ten minutes each opening both halves of the concert. Iain Grandage's Out Of Time (2004) was a highly tonal showpiece that highlighted different aspects of the young orchestra's prowess, including instrumental solos and ensemble playing.

Minimalist in feel, the music chugged along agreeably, resembling the wizardry of Harry Potter movie music and the lyrical variety that accompanies wildlife documentaries. Its message was an exhortation to seize the day as time was running out, one obliged by the young musicians who put on a vivid and stirring performance.

Young composer Rebecca Erin Smith
receives the plaudits.

Rebecca Erin Smith's Murakami's Well (2016) was more abstract but no less listenable, inspired by the fantasies in Toru's dried-up well in Japanese Haruki Murakami's novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Almost a concerto for orchestra in miniature, the riot of colours conjured up by various instrument groups and solos relived moments of Bartok, Sibelius and Stravinsky without sounding derivative. However it was the influence of Debussy which ultimately dominated the more animated section, cranking up the tempo to an ecstatic close.

In between both works, Montreal-born violinist Alexandre Da Costa (now residing in Perth) was soloist in a unabashed romanticised orchestration of Tomaso Vitali's violin classic, the Chaconne in G minor. Forget its supposed baroque origin, for Costa's exuded a vibrato the size of Western Australia with opulent ornamentations to match.

The showboating continued in Vittorio Monti's Csardas, where the gypsy elan in this half-tipsy dance held sway. The impromptu encore was an even longer work, all three movements of Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), where both soloist and orchestra luxuriated in a display of string fireworks.

The world's only concertmaster with
pink hair is Julia Nicholls.

The orchestra completed its demanding programme with the final two movements of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4 in F minor. String pizzicatos were the mainstay in the Scherzo movement, and if one felt the players were somewhat off the pace, this was made up by the woodwinds which picked up speed and some neat brass chorale work.

All caution was thrown to the winds for the tempestuous finale which provided many exciting moments, not least when the Fate motif which opened the symphony returned, blared out by the brass. 

More Australiana, appropriately, made up the generous encore offered: Michael Hurst's The Swagman's Promenade. As its title suggests, this was a fantasy on The Waltzing Matilda and other popular Ozzie tunes. Fair dinkum, it made for a jolly good show.   

WHEN HEAVENS COLLIDE: Western Australian Youth Orchestra & Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

WHEN HEAVENS COLLIDE
Western Australian Youth Orchestra
& Orchestra of the Music Makers
Esplanade Concert Hall
Monday (14 December 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 December 2009.

When heavens collide, a big bang usually results. That was the intention of this joint concert that paired the best young musical outfits from Singapore and Perth, Western Australia. And the storm of high decibels began with Mars, The Bringer of War, first movement from The Planets by Gustav Holst.

Led by master orchestra-builder Chan Tze Law (left), the gauntlet was thrown, with confident brass issuing the call to arms over an insistent rhythmic thrust that never let up. It was an impressive start that got even better with the quicksilver reflexes of Mercury, The Winged Messenger and hymn-like countenance of Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity.

Only in the slower movements was the large orchestra really challenged. Venus, The Bringer of Peace could have been a tad more tender, while Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age ached a little from its arthritic pace. However, the solos shone, including concertmaster See Ian Ike’s little melodies on the violin and many others too numerous to name.

The infectious swagger of Uranus, The Magician then made way for the ethereal in Neptune, The Mystic, when voices of the Queensland Festival Chorus wafted like ghostly apparitions through the trellises behind the gallery. Perhaps a more mysterious pianissimo could have been coaxed, but the idea of extreme remoteness and an icy chill was achieved.

Peter Moore (left), better known as Uncle Peter of Babies Proms fame, then led the orchestra on two battlefronts, terrestrial and galactic. The former was an exuberant reading of the Symphonic Dances from Bernstein’s West Side Story, one with two robust shouts of Mambo! that put the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s usually tepid attempts into the shade. Most impressive was the beautiful string sound that brought out the true pathos of the hit number Somewhere.

The latter was the much-anticipated Star Wars Suite, where John Williams’ artful depiction of celestial feuds and escapades became a little game of “spot the influence”. On the evidence of this totally enthusiastic and often entrancing performance, one may safely conclude that these young musicians will do great things with the music of Wagner, Richard Strauss, Korngold, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Walton.

Two rousing encores, a delightfully frothy transcription of Waltzing Matilda (conducted by Moore) and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 (conducted by Chan), ensured that the big bangs continued late into the evening.